Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 1).djvu/515

Rh Soya bean oil contains 94-95 p. c. of fatty acids (present as glycerol esters) of which about 15 per cent, consist of saturated acids (palmitic acid) and about 80 per cent, of liquid unsaturated fatty acids. The latter were found to consist of about 70 per cent, of oleic acid, about 24 per cent, of linolic acid and about 6 per cent, of linolenic acid. Samples of the oils labelled " purified " and " unpurified " had the following characters respectively: — Sp. gr. at 15°C, 0-9260, 09265; solidif. pt.— 11.5° C.,-12°C.; refractive index at 40°C, 1.4680, 1.4680; acid value, 5.7, 1.71 ; saponification value, 192.3, 194.3 ; iodine value (Hübl, after 18 hours' action), 131.3, 132.67 ; Reichert-Meisel value, 0.75, 0.75 ; Polenske value, 0.78, 1.08 ; elaidin reaction, positive. Exposure of the oil for six months (in daylight) to moist air increased the acid value, but lowered the iodine value. Pure oxygen both in the absence and presence of moisture, had no influence on the iodine value.

The phyto sterol of Soya beans. The unsaponifiable portion of Soya bean oil amounts to about 0.7 per cent., which is easily separated into a crystalline portion (about 55 per cent.) and a liquid portion (about 45 per cent.) by means of petroleum ether (b. p. 50° C.) in which the latter is soluble. The crystalline portion consists of two substances (a) about 2.4 per cent, of a phytosterol, melting at 169°C., which has two double linkages and is strongly laevorotatory. It is identical with the stigmasterol isolated from Calaban beans by Windans and Hauth ; (b) about 97 per cent, of a laevorotatory phytosterol with one double linkage and melting at 139°C. The liquid portion of the unsaponifiable portion of Soya bean oil consists of unsaturated oxygenated compounds, which give the phytosterol reaction. Elementary 'analysis gave the same proportion of carbon and hydrogen as in the case of phytosterol (b). Experiments made to separate the phytosterol- like constituent of the liquid portion by Windans' method with digitonin were unsuccessful.

(J. Ch. I. September 30, 1911, p. 1124).

Syn :— Glycine labialis, Linn., Roxb. 565.

Sansk. : — Mâshaparni (fresh-leaved), krishna-vrintâ (black-stalked), Kamboji (a shell), Haya puchhika (horse-tailed), Mansa masha (flesh weighing 2 tolas), Sinha-mukhi, (lion-mouthed), Swada masha (having sweet flesh), Maha-saha (having great power).

Vern.— Mashoni (H.) ; Mashani (B.).

Habitat. — Plains, from the foot of the West Himalayas to Ceylon.

Habitat : — Plains from the foot of the West Himalayas to Ceylon, Burma and Penang. Cosmopolitan in the tropics. Natal.